Hurricane Hugo - Twenty Five Years Ago (1 Viewer)

[Mjolnirs]

Twenty five years ago tonight I was hunkered down in my in-laws hallway as Hugo came ashore. I've lived in Charleston all of my life and had seen a few close calls before and since, this was not a close call.

I know there are others on the board that are from Charleston, and all of us have Hugo stories.

A couple of the big memories I have:
* Having been out of town and trying to get back to town to get my house ready. Being on I95 and looping around to get on I26, and seeing the lanes packed with cars heading towards Columbia, and nobody heading to Charleston. We were in a black '85 Mustang flying towards town and we had all of the east bound lanes to ourselves.
*Getting to town and going straight to Piggly Wiggly and all of the shelves being nearly empty. We got the last loaf of bread.
*Taping up windows and then leaving my house wondering what would be left the next day. I had several pine trees in my back yard and luckily they fell away from the house.
*Sitting in my in-laws hallway with my in-laws, wife and 17 month old son. Feeling the house shake each time a pine tree hit the ground, and the lifeline of a radio station out of Savannah on a portable radio.
*The amazing calm and clear sky of the eye. You hear about it, but seeing it is something you never forget.
*The first walk through the neighborhood and seeing the devastation. The kind of stuff you only see on tv.
*The sound of generators in the night, for nights on end. Around 10 days worth.

The Saturday after the storm South Carolina had a home game and we decided to go. They had electricity! Back then the teams used to use large bags of ice on the sideline. After the game we approached a member of the stadium security and told them we were from Charleston and would love some of that ice. They let us on the field and we filled the back of the truck with bags of ice, then spent a few hours going from store to store buying cheap Styrofoam coolers. When we got back to town the neighbors all filled their coolers.

Post and Courier's photo gallery.

 

[Insein]

I was 6, living in an apt in Philly. All I remember is my parents saying something about Hugo and it rained harder and scarier than anytime I could remember in my childhood.

 

[In The Zone]

I was in Lexington and got nothing close to you. I was lucky being on the western side of Columbia. My friend and is uncle where in a hotel in Florence and the roof blew off.

 

[Mjolnirs]

I was 6, living in an apt in Philly. All I remember is my parents saying something about Hugo and it rained harder and scarier than anytime I could remember in my childhood.

I can completely see you remembering some hard rain around that time. We were actually outside of Philly visiting family when we got wind Hugo might be heading towards Charleston. We packed up and left Wednesday morning (Hugo hit on Thursday) and it was pouring in Pennsylvania and all down 95 from a different storm system. We crossed a small stream and in my rear view mirror I saw police pull up and start closing the bridge to traffic because the water was rising so quickly.

 

[tdoss]

I just arrived in boot camp in Parris Island...crazy amount of rain and wind, but nothing was going to take down those brick barracks.

I remember it doing damage to the bridge to Parris Island though...and the Drill Instructors telling us the only way off the island now was in a body bag.

 

[bleachercreacher]

I was too young to really remember much of Hugo, but I've heard all kinds of stories. I currently work in the lab of a Charleston hospital, and it's crazy to hear the stories of my coworkers that worked that night. People were stuck at the hospital for 6 or 7 days, so they got a lot of OT. It sounds like most of the OT money went to fix stuff at home, so it's not like most even got to enjoy the nice check.

My dad lived at Myrtle at the time. He drove to Charlotte to wait out the storm. He swears that when he returned to his appartment that some of his furniture had actually shifted in the appartment.